Can today be a do-over please?

Today was a balloon day.  Aubrey got to sleep in and Devon was excited that she got to ride her bike to school today, one of her favorite things to do. Things at work started out okay but hectic since I got in late but went along pretty well until I made a mistake and boom!  there was the pin to burst my balloon!  I take making mistakes so hard....and it's not like it's a rare occurrence, I make my fair share.  I just hate it so!  You'd never know from looking at me that I have a perfection complex.

Anyhow, so much for work, right?  We can't all be perfect all the time....but I come so damn close!   LOL   Home is even more frustrating, maybe because I'm even farther from perfection there.  The last day Aubrey was home from school....yea!!!  So she took advantage of this by baking (a no-no without permission which she's been told won't happen again for a while).  SHE says she got permission from Ron, which he semi-denies....she got everything assembled and then asked him if it was okay while he was semi-sleeping....does a grunt always mean yes or only when you want it to?

My favorite part of the whole baking thing is that she left the bowls so I could teach her how to clean up, something I've been threatening to do for a while.  She wants to bake she needs to know how to clean up when she's done, right?  I'm taking this as a step forward....she actually did clean up once I explained the process, and did a good job, too.

Devon, on the other hand, was a little sneak today.  She's decided, I think partly because Aubrey has role-modeled this for her, that anything in the house is hers for the taking.  Somethings I don't mind, somethings I mind but they've never been discussed, but I get so MAD when it's stuff she knows she's not allowed to take!  Why is everything Devon and Aubrey's and nothing is mine?  It's like they never grew out of the toddler-ownership phase (what's mine is mine, what's yours is mine)....AARGH!!!

It's always the little things that just pile up on me.  Maybe if I got more sleep....ate better....exercised more....the little things wouldn't get to me so much.  I mean, the girls' behavior wasn't that  bad tonight but it just hit me wrong and I had enough and wanted to leave...not forever, just for a little while, just long enough to feel like I got a break, but of course I didn't, I couldn't....so, instead, I cleaned up from dinner (yes, I actually cooked tonight) and picked up the piles of stuff that had fallen on the floor but no one else could pick up and the dirty laundry that was strewn around the living room because that's where the clothes had been discarded and all the while Aubrey is sulkily working minimally on the homework she said she had finished and Devon is sobbing in the bathtub.  Wonderful....maybe this should be "vying for the worst parent award" 2nd installment.......so I take a deep breath and head upstairs to see why Devon is so upset (could it have been something I did?)  and, oh, stab that knife in deeper, my poor little sweetie thought I was so mad that I was moving out.  Once I revived myself, I set to consoling her and told her a secret - I'm never moving anywhere I can't take her with me.  Thank God she recovers fast.  I got a lot of loving, I gave a lot of loving, she read me a bedtime story (Sheep Out to Eat) and it became bedtime as usual (yes, that means Aubrey was frequently asking when I could read to her and stomping off that Devon is my favorite and who cares about reading anyhow).  I'm exhausted but not tired now.......guess I'll watch a little tv to relax...how about a show about serial killers?  oooh, my favorite!